


Do Evil Queens Dream of Cybernetic Swans?

by brokenmimir



Series: Swan Queen Week Winter 2016 [7]
Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: F/F, Swan Queen Week
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-23
Updated: 2016-01-23
Packaged: 2018-05-15 19:22:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,652
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5796808
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/brokenmimir/pseuds/brokenmimir
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Swan Queen Week Winter 2016, Prompt 7: Pride<br/>The Evil Queen, best hacker on the net, sends Swan, cybernetic freelancer, on a simple job to Gold Industries.  What could go wrong?</p>
            </blockquote>





	Do Evil Queens Dream of Cybernetic Swans?

“It hasn’t been that long,” Neal said.

“Hasn’t... have you checked the time,” Emma objected. “We’ve been here for thirty-seven minutes. Thirty. Seven.”

“Like I said, it hasn’t been that long,” Neal repeated.

Emma glared at him, before sighing and slumping against the building. With a series of blinks and muscle twitches she activated a game app on the lens of her left eye to pass the time. She was just about to break her own high score when the app suddenly froze up. The brightly colored images twisted and contorted until they formed a glowing green face.

“Swan,” a synthesized voice purred.

Emma rolled her eyes. “Great, not only do you hack my wetware, which is really not cool, by the way, but you also cost me my high score.”

The image rolled its eyes and huffed. “Because of course that’s what’s important. Not the job that will keep us all fed.”

“Yeah, yeah, your majesty,” Emma grumbled. “What’s the job, Regina?”

“I’ve told you not to call me that when we’re working,” Regina said. “Try to be a little professional. You and your associate are going to help me break into Gold Industries.”

“Help you?” Emma asked. “I thought the Evil Queen was the best hacker on the net?”

“I am,” Regina insisted. “Unfortunately, GI’s R&D network isn’t on the net. I need you to install a bridge. A simple in and out job. Can you handle that Swan?”

Emma scoffed. “Please. Like it’ll be a problem.”

“She get the job ready?” Neal asked.

“Yeah, her majesty just wanted to annoy me by hacking my wetware to contact me,” Emma said.

The two made their way downtown, taking the Maglev for the two hundred mile journey from the suburbs to the heart of the city. The dirty, squat buildings slowly fell away, leaving nothing but towering skyscrapers rising above looming arcologies. The rich area was every bit as dirty, corrupt, and polluted as the worst slum, but the people acted as though blinding LEDs, manufactured diamonds, and shimmering metallic cloth made them better than everyone else.

Gold Industries’ headquarters was actually worse than most about it. It was a sky scraper so tall that loomed over the congested streets, its gold plated upper half lost in the clouds of smog that filled the sky. Emma didn’t spend much time looking, simply running for cover as a steady sprinkle of acid rain dribbled onto the streets. Her hair looked like enough of a mess without damaging it further.

“What are we doing here?” Neal asked, looking up at the tall building with unusual dread.

“Just a little B and E,” Emma dismissed. “Patch job.”

“I’m not sure this is a good idea,” Neal muttered.

Emma looked at him in surprise. “What’s wrong. You’re the one that got me into freelancing in the first place – why’re you getting cold feet now?”

Neal just shook his head, and Emma began examining the building again. After a few moments her left eye displayed the blueprints, an icon in the corner of the Evil Queen’s face showing that her silent partner was still connected to her wetware. Emma huffed a little but didn’t give Regina the satisfaction of reacting. After two years of working with her off and on Emma knew how Regina worked.

After some study Emma finally reached a conclusion. “Neal, use your Mask, walk in the front door. There’s a side entrance without a guard you can open. Standard sensor array on it.”

With a few finger twitches Emma sent the image to Neal, and with a blink and some twitches of his own he brought it up on his eye. He finally noded and turned his back on the building. His face slowly contorted, sub-dermal bladders adjusting the fullness of his cheeks and the shape of his bone structure. Tiny LCDs in his irises changed color as well, and when he cleared his throat she could here the pitch change as his vocal cords were altered. Finally he had transformed into a balding office drone, and with a quick nod to her he made his way to the building.

Emma casually walked around the outside of the corporate skyscraper, before finally choosing a section of wall to lean against seemingly at random. She had just enough time to play a round of her game while snarking with Regina when the door beside her clicked open and Neal’s real face peeked out.

“Where to, boss?” he asked smugly.

Emma rolled her eyes, refusing to acknowledge just how good he was at infiltration jobs. His ego was way too big already. Once inside he fell into step behind her as Emma made her way through side corridors to the network junction she needed to use. Fortunately she didn’t need to get into the heart of the building to do the job, since the labs were scattered all over, which meant that the R&D network was distributed as well.

The door to the network junction was as secure as something low paid maintenance staff had to have constant access to could be. For a freelancer of her caliber, it took about thirty seconds to spoof the retinal scanner and pick the key lock, and she was in. The device she needed to plant was about an inch long and simply had to be plugged into a fiber jack for both sides of the network, which turned out to be pretty easy as whoever set it up was kind enough to actually label things.

“That do it?” she subvocalized.

The face of the Evil Queen bounced once before growing to fill most of her left eye’s vision. “I’m in. Good work, Swan.”

“I’m the best,” she said smugly as she closed up.

That was, of course, the moment that everything went to hell.

“The best, dearie?” a man’s voice asked. “If you're the best I really don’t have much to worry about.”

Standing at the end of the hall was Gold himself, CEO of Gold Industries. He was a withered heap of a man, kept alive by so many cybernetic systems that he looked like he was covered in metallic scales. Beside him were a dozen corporate security officers, all heavily upgraded with the latest military issue cyberware.

“Stall for time,” Regina said quietly. “Be ready to move.”

“How the hell’d you catch us?” Emma asked. “I know I didn’t trip any alarms.”

Gold snorted. “Please. You think I don’t have the biometric sensors set to detect my own son?”

Emma paused, before turning to give Neal an incredulous look. “The _hell?_ ”

“You’re not my dad,” Neal growled. “You cared more about money than you ever did me.”

“I’m sorry, son,” Gold said. “Why don’t we go to my office and talk about this? Man to man? I’ve missed you.”

“The only thing you’d ever miss is power,” Neal said. “I’m not going anywhere with you.”

“Oh?” Gold asked. “I guess you don’t care much for your partner, then.”

“Don’t hurt her!” Neal shouted, stepping forward as the security all raised their guns and pointed them at Emma.

“Yeah, I don’t think so,” Emma said. “I’m not some damsel in distress.”

“Now!” Regina shouted in her ear, and she didn’t have to be told twice. She raised her left arm and fired the concealed grenade from it. It was a flashbang mixed with a smokescreen and a tiny EMP, and after it went off Emma and Neal turned and ran.

“Shoot you idiots!” Gold yelled, but nothing happened as they ran away.

“Why aren’t they shooting!” Neal yelled as they ran.

“Her majesty,” Emma called as she ran, her cybernetically enhanced lungs filling with enough oxygen to let her talk while running at a dead sprint.

“It’s nice to be acknowledged,” Regina purred. “It was a crude job, well beneath my standards, but I was able to overload enough of their wetware to keep them from moving for a few moments. It’s military grade, so it won’t buy you much time, but I’ve arranged transport.”

They hit the side door at a sprint, and Emma saw what Regina meant immediately. A bus was idling in the street, its autopilot system no doubt giving it strange orders, and Neal followed her on board. It immediately sped off, altering its route to take them out of the heart of the city to a nice spot to disappear.

Two hours later Emma was finally convinced that no one was following her, and so she made a circuitous path to her apartment. It took almost two minutes to pass all of the layers of security, but she could finally breath a sigh of relief once she was inside.

“Hey, babe, I’m home!” Emma called as she walked into Regina’s workroom. The hacker was reclined on a cyber pod and wired up via dozens of thick cables to the massive computer system that filled the room. Regina twitched slightly, before the screens turned on, displaying the status of various background projects as the Evil Queen slowly removed her mind from VR.

As always the first thing that Regina felt when she returned to the physical world was Emma’s lips to her own. Emma pulled back, smiling at her girlfriend’s happy moan. Finally the hacker opened her eyes and smiled at her.

“Always the best way to wake up,” Regina purred.

“Only the best for the best hacker on the net,” Emma said.

“Yes, I suppose so,” Regina agreed as she unhooked enough cables to stand on shaky legs. She hadn’t moved her muscles beyond unconscious twitches all day, and it was always rough to get up after a long VR session. “Time to celebrate our success, despite your almost getting yourself caught.”

Emma rolled her eyes but smiled as the two walked arm in arm to their bedroom.

It was good being the best team of freelancers around.

 

**Author's Note:**

> Well, this concludes yet another Swan Queen week. This one felt a bit rushed, but I liked the idea of doing a cyberpunk story more than I enjoyed actually writing one. Still, I was happy to end the week with a story where they're actually in a real relationship at the end -- so many I wrote this time ended right at the beginning for our ladies.
> 
> Until next time, everyone!


End file.
